Experts Speak
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August 21, 2021
Geopolitical Shifts Could Unfold Post T-Afghanistan
By Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha (Retd)China is entering this space created by the withdrawal of US troops. It will like to swiftly maneuver in order to gain significant advantage towards solidifying its continental strategy driven by BRI.
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August 19, 2021
Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan
By Air Marshal B.K. Pandey (Retd)Although Pakistan plays a major role in Afghanistan in practically all segments, yet Afghanistan would not like to be seen as a mere crony of Pakistan.
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August 15, 2021
Army's Contribution in Olympics
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Army has always contributed sportsmen at national and international sports events. For the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, 12 Indian Army personnel formed part of the Indian contingent.
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August 15, 2021
Indian Fuselage for Apache Helicopters
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The production of the 100th fuselage for Apache helicopters has been accomplished by TABL within three years of the facility being established at Hyderabad
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August 15, 2021
Seventh War Olympics
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The competition fosters military to military cooperation while building upon the best practices of participating nations.
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August 15, 2021
US Superpower Image Cracks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With the pull-out from Afghanistan, the superpower image of the US has taken a severe hit and that too at a time when Washington may have to deal with China and Russia collectively
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August 15, 2021
Maritime Security to The Fore
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)With increasing maritime threats, India is all set to establish a National Maritime Security Coordinator (NSMC). The NSMC will interface between the civilian and military maritime domain with the objective of enhancing security architecture and energy security of India.
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August 15, 2021
K9 Vajra Mountain Trials Successful
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)According to sources in the defence and security establishment, trials of 3 x K9 Vajra which were sent to Ladakh earlier this year have been successful and because it is tracked, the movement in the mountains becomes easier so the system can be deployed strategically.
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August 6, 2021
Xi Jinping in Occupied Tibet
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)During Xi's visit to Lhasa, public movement was restriced, work in factories and sites was halted and flying of kites and drones prohibited
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August 6, 2021
Coming - MQ-9 Reapers and Armed Herons
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Once cleared by the DAC, the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) will need to give its final approval before procurement of the Predator-B armed drones can move forward
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August 6, 2021
China Breaching Indian Security
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Indian companies are aiding China breach security at various levels in India by supplying fake and cheap spare parts and sub-standard quality Chinese surveillance devices for use in our military equipment and defence establishments
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August 6, 2021
Malabar Exercise - Signaling China
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)People's Republic of China should be taking cognizance of the global reaction to its belligerent and expansionist territorial claims including its maritime claims in the East and South China seas.
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August 6, 2021
Vikrant on Sea Trials
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Vikrant is also known as the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier 1, or IAC-1. It will be the second ship to bear the name 'Vikrant'.
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August 6, 2021
Clipping Wings of OFB Worker Unions
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Essential Defence Services Bill-2021 effectively rules out future strikes by workers' federation of OFB unless they want to defy the bill by going on strike and challenge the government to collectively dismiss them
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July 22, 2021
Success of MPATGM: Huge boost to indigenisation
By Lt. General J.K. Sharma (Retd)The timing of the success is even more significant as it has happened at a time when the border stand-off with China still continues
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July 19, 2021
The Disengagement Quagmire
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)After Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi agreed to complete disengagement in September 2020, China has continued to dither disengaging from Gogra, Hot Springs and Depsang
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July 19, 2021
China's Underwater Drones
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Mass deployment of Drones gives a tremendous underwater advantage to Beijing not only for quietly gathering hydrographic data in territorial waters of other countries but also military advantage to the PLA
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July 19, 2021
Counter Drone Systems for IAF
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)A CUAS detects and intercepts hostile drones and unmanned aerial systems, which can be used for intelligence gathering or smuggling contraband, or to deploy explosives
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July 19, 2021
Procuring Kamov Helicopters
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Armed Forces urgently need 498 light utility helicopters to replace their obsolete single-engine Cheetah/Chetak fleets, which have been dogged by a high crash rate and serviceability problems.
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July 19, 2021
The Drone Challenge
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Drone Rules, 2021 will lead to an explosion of drone use in India. The number of unregulated but active over 6,00,000 drones in India could jump to 10-20 times that number of drones, regulated through self-certification.
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July 19, 2021
The Taliban Game Plan
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Taliban want to establish an Islamic Emirate ruled by Taliban rule and with Sharia imposed throughout Afghanistan. The peace talks are more of a game for Taliban concurrent to their offensive.
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July 17, 2021
Air Defence Gun Systems - Light at the end of the Barrel
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)The projected requirement would be a minimum of 1000 guns in a phased manner and it is obvious that 6000 crores is not enough. More funds will be allotted depending on the success of the project.
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July 6, 2021
Jammu Drone Attack is Wakeup Call
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Drone threat is not merely cross-border but equally potent from the hinterland. Therefore, merely deploying drone defence dome systems along the borders will not be enough.
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July 6, 2021
Russia Sprut Tanks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)During the visit of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to Russia in September 2020, Russia offered the Sprut SDM1 light tanks in response to Rajnath mentioning that India was looking for light tanks. Now Russia has responded to the RFI with the same offer.
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July 6, 2021
Beyond the Decision to Corporatise OFB
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Government has approved restructuring of the OFB and the 41 OFs into seven Defence Public Sector Undertakings (DPSUs) but their accountability, efficiency and competitiveness will improve only with privatisation
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July 6, 2021
Defence Cyber Command
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Indian Government is planning to set up a 'proper' Cyber Command in the hinterland of Madhya Pradesh for providing a fighting edge to the proposed Theatre Commands
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July 6, 2021
Child Soldiers of Pakistan
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)US has added Pakistan in the list of countries under Child Soldier Prevention Act (CSPA) which prohibits the issuance of licenses for direct commercial sales of military equipment to such governments
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July 6, 2021
Agni Prime Successfully Tested
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Agni Prime is part of a much larger arsenal that India wants to deploy in the Indo-Pacific region to effectively deter China in the maritime domain
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July 2, 2021
Drone Attack: Are We Prepared Enough?
By Lt. General J.K. Sharma (Retd)While the discussion around the use of armed drones is not new, not only do these concerns remain unresolved but, with drone warfare continuing to expand and evolve, new layers are being added to the controversies posed by the use of armed drones
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June 22, 2021
The Taliban Factor
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)India has lagged in establishing contacts with the Afghan Taliban despite writing on the wall over the past several years that they will likely come to power in Kabul after the exit of US troops from Afghanistan or have a major say in governance
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June 22, 2021
Hypersonic and Stealth Aircraft
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Russia and China lead in hypersonic weapon development, trailed by the US. India, France, Australia and Japan too are developing these technologies.
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June 22, 2021
Second Negative Import List
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)An all around growth of our defence industry is required, not through the DRDO-OFB-DPSUs alone with role of private defence industry and MSMEs relegated to being subcontracted to the governmental defence industrial complex
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June 22, 2021
Border Infrastructure
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Chinese aggression in 2020 has woken up India to its strategic inadequacies including in border infrastructure
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June 22, 2021
Aero Engines
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Aero Engine is an important critical technology. We need to establish a JV for aero engines with an OEM at the earliest.
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June 22, 2021
FRCV to The Fore
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In conformity with the emerging future threat spectrum and the technological advancements, the Indian Army intends to induct a new state-of-the-art and technology-enabled tank
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June 19, 2021
DAC approves RFP for construction of six submarines
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)This project envisages indigenous construction of six conventional stealth submarines equipped with the state-of-the-art Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) system, at an estimated cost of 43,000 crore (about $5.8 billion)
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June 19, 2021
Pearl in the String
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier had some misgivings on the economic viability of CPEC and that it represents a debt trap but on May 24, 2021, he met China’s Ambassador to Pakistan and reiterated the highest priority accorded by his government to the CPEC
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June 17, 2021
Integrated approach to Air Defence in India
By Lt. General A.P. Singh, Director General, Army Air DefenceThe AD architecture world over, throws up three types of integration i.e., geographical integration, resources/assets integration and the functional integration.
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June 11, 2021
FRCV - Aimed to Shock and Awe
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)The RFI states that the Indian Army requires state-of-the-art Main Battle Tank namely Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV) to replace the existing tank fleet.
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June 11, 2021
Army Triggers Atmanirbhar
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)The Indian Army, to boost self reliance, has set up its own Army Design Bureau (ADB) for indigenous procurements and reduce import dependence
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June 6, 2021
Another Chinese Conquest in Colombo
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)China getting 220 acres on 99 years lease and 49 acres free-hold in Colombo Port City is a massive strategic victory for Beijing
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June 6, 2021
The Offset Googly
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Offset clause in Inter-Government Agreements (IGA) under the Defence Acquisition Procedure (DAP 2020) was removed and a new category for leasing military equipment introduced.
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June 6, 2021
Bhutan’s Summer of 2021
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Over the years China has occupied a large swath of territory in Western Bhutan through salami slicing
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June 6, 2021
Counter Maoist Operations
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Maharashtra Police had undergone training at the Counter Terrorism and Jungle Warfare (CTJW) College at Kanker in Chhattisgarh between 2008 and 2011, after which they established their own training establishment near Nagpur employing a veteran army officer for initial few years
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June 6, 2021
Advanced Herons for LAC
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Heron TP equipped with automatic taxi-take-off and landing (ATOL) and satellite communication (SATCOM) systems has all weather capability and will help the Indian Army enhance its surveillance capabilities along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China
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June 6, 2021
New Runway in Mauritius
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)India is fully financing a new three kilometre long runway on the island of North Agalega to develop the Agaléga islands and resolve infrastructural problems faced by the inhabitants
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June 2, 2021
Unite to Fight Corona Delta and Pernicious Forces
By Lt. General Dushyant Singh (Retd)Investigations on the CORONA being a bio warfare are already on and the circumstantial evidence points too strongly towards China. Hope India was not a victim of bio warfare as efforts to bring down India...
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May 25, 2021
Navy’s Utility Helicopter - A Twist in the Tale
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)By 2025, Indian Navy will be faced with a major capability gap for Naval Utility Helicopters.
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May 25, 2021
QUAD – Revisited
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)The Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD) was an informal strategic forum between India, US, Japan and Australia initiated in 2007
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May 20, 2021
American Sunset in Afghanistan
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The US war in Afghanistan is the longest in which some 2,312 US military personnel have died since their invasion in 2001
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May 20, 2021
Military Officers As Bureaucrats
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Appointment of serving military officers as Additional Secretary and Joint Secretaries in the DMA is not a big deal as is being made out
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May 20, 2021
Space Planes
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The ISRO Two-Stage-to-Orbit (TSTO) Space Plane would fulfill the near term access-to-space goals while greatly reducing the cost, substantially improving mission flexibility, operability, safety and reliability, while also offering significant growth potential
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May 20, 2021
2-DG Drug Helping COVID-19 Patients
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)DRDO affiliated Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Allied Sciences (INMAS) worked in partnership with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories for the clinical trials showing it to be effective in controlling the pandemic
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May 20, 2021
Plugging Armed Forces Criticalities
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Armed Forces are looking at leasing more military equipment and platforms from foreign countries to plug critical operational deficiencies
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May 20, 2021
India-UK Defence Cooperation
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Modi-Johnson virtual meet and adoption of the India-UK Roadmap to 2030 have opened new vistas for taking the bilateral defence relationship to the next level
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May 14, 2021
Army needs Light Tanks
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)The main gun of the Light Tanks should have advance multipurpose ‘Smart Munitions’ and be able to fire tube launched anti-tank guided missile with the capability to defeat tanks and soft skinned vehicles.
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May 14, 2021
Update on China’s intrusion in Ladakh
By Lt. General Naresh Chand (Retd)Chinese side made several attempts to cross the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in other parts of the Western Sector which included Kongka La, Gogra and North Bank of Pangong Lake.
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May 6, 2021
Did Beijing Trigger Second Virus Wave?
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Within India, Delhi (the national capital), Mumbai (the financial capital) and Bengaluru (the IT capital) are most affected. This creates the impression that akin to ‘tactical nukes’ China has developed ‘tactical bio-bombs’
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May 6, 2021
Indian Navy Getting MH-60R Seahawks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The MH-60R helicopters have been selected by the navies of the United States, Denmark, Australia and Saudi Arabia. Indian Navy will be the latest user
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May 6, 2021
China Deploys Long Range MLRS
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The MLRS will enable the PLA to strike deeper across the LAC especially with China having extended its map grids into India that will enable acquiring targets on the Indian side
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May 6, 2021
More Teeth for Indian Navy
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The requirement for India is to define its role within its IOR strategy and keep providing more teeth to the Indian Navy in keeping with the expanding threats
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May 6, 2021
LCA Tejas Gets Python-5
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Tejas multi-role supersonic fighter manufactured indigenously at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is designed to carry a range of air-to-air, air-to-surface, precision-guided weapons. It provides a potent platform for aerial combat, offensive air support missions, and reconnaissance and anti-ship operations.
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May 6, 2021
Light Tanks for Indian Army
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The new RFI issued by the Indian Army calls for a light tank featuring a multiple, modular and upgradable weapon system with the capability to destroy and offer countermeasures
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April 20, 2021
Major Maoist Strike - no lessons learned
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Another tragedy in counter-Maoist operations indicates that lives of the jawans is cheap and the hierarchy, both political and the police force, remain lackadaisical
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April 20, 2021
Quad Exercise with French Navy
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The latest edition of 'La Perouse' indicates that the Quad is emerging as the fulcrum of like-minded nations in the Indo-Pacific
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April 20, 2021
Indo-French Space Cooperation
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The Indo-French relationship in space is spread over different facets of space science, technology and applications, including sounding rocket development, liquid engine development, hosting of payloads, joint satellite realisation, training programmes, satellite communication experiment and satellite launches.
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April 20, 2021
11th India-China Military Talks
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Unlike the last few rounds of talks, there was no India-China joint statement. This is maybe because China is not for anymore disengagement.
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April 20, 2021
India in China’s Cyber Crosshairs
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)General Bipin Rawat, Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) has recently stated that China is capable of launching cyber attacks on large amount of Indian systems
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April 20, 2021
India-Kyrgyz Republic Special Forces Exercise
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Both countries have signed several framework agreements, including on culture, trade and economic cooperation. Joint Special Forces Exercise ‘Khanjar’ has now become an annual affair.
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April 6, 2021
US Secretary of Defence visit to India
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Austin said elevating the India-US defence relationship is a priority for the Biden administration while describing the partnership as a stronghold of a free and open Indo-Pacific region
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April 6, 2021
HPM Armed Drones
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)The counter-drone arms race is leading to advance research and development to implement technologies that will detect and defeat swarms
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April 6, 2021
Mine-Proof FICV and High Altitude Vehicles
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)In mid-2017, US offered US-India-Israel trilateral production of FICV under the India-US Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) but little has happened over past so many years
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April 6, 2021
Light Specialist Vehicles
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)These LSVs are capable of performing in extreme terrain, with maneuverability, high speed and stability, has the provision to mount a rocket launcher and machine guns, and can be airlifted and dropped into enemy territory, for use as an advance fast strike vehicle
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April 6, 2021
LiDAR Satellites
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Considering the enlarging threats to India and with the possibility of conflict with China and its allies in the short, medium and long terms, our scientists, policy makers and military planners need to examine the military applications of satellite-based LiDAR platforms
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April 6, 2021
Korean Defence Minister Suh Wook’s India Visit
By Lt. General P.C. Katoch (Retd)Defence and security relations between India and Republic of Korea have been on the rise with regular interactions at multiple levels including at ministerial levels
